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Oakland City Council Prepared To Vote On A's Lease Deal; Mayor Quan Seeks Postponement

OAKLAND (KCBS) -- The long, drawn-out fight over a proposed lease agreement that would keep the Oakland A's in town may be coming to an end, as the city council is set to vote on the deal on Wednesday night despite an 11th-hour postponement request by Mayor Jean Quan.

Mayor Quan is trying to postpone that vote a week after urging the board to approve it. Quan hopes the vote can be postponed until the end of July, as she wants City Administrator Henry Gardner to negotiate some "clarifications" with A's owner Lew Wolff.  Quan has not said what those clarifications are.  For his part, Wolff has said he is not interested in re-opening negotiations and wants the lease as is.

Oakland City Council Prepares To Vote On A's Lease Deal

Under the proposal, the A's would get two years notice before any construction gets underway at the Coliseum, where the Oakland Raiders want a new stadium built.

The A's want a baseball-only ballpark and have been blocked from moving to San Jose. However, when the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority approved the 10 year lease with the A's, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig gave the team permission to move either temporarily or permanently, if the deal was not approved by Oakland city leaders.

Before Tuesday's All Star game in Minnesota, A's owner Lew Wolff said he isn't ruling out a possible rebuild on the Coliseum site, as he said that is an option he is willing to re-examine.

O.co Coliseum has long been ridiculed, as the facility has had major issues with plumbing and lighting for years.

Following the expected vote by the Oakland City Council, the deal would go before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on July 29, but no big hurdles are expected there.

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